Stevie Ray Vaughan achieved guitar-hero status by combining the grittiness of his blues roots with the wild adventurousness of his hero, Jimi Hendrix. Growing up a musical prodigy in Texas, the young Vaughan was gigging professionally when he was still a teenager. He started playing with his faithful rhythm section, Double Trouble, in the late '70s, and by the '80s, was working as a studio guitarist for the likes of David Bowie and James Brown. Tragically, Vaughan died in a helicopter crash in 1990 at the age of 35, but his reputation as a rock legend was already secure.